September 4, 2011

Irene

Irene caught us by surprise. The hurricane, which was little more than a breeze in NYC, seemed to pick up steam as it headed inland and north towards the Catskills. After a very windy rainy night, we woke to swollen creeks and rivers and several downed trees. Since it stopped raining, we got out to town to survey the damage. Of course this required the heavy work of the chainsaw just to get out of the driveway and down the road. Once out on the main road, we could only go west, since the flooding and downed trees blocked our eastern way. (After part two of the storm, the main road was blocked in both directions.)

Little did we know that the back end of the storm would contain such extremely harsh winds that we lost a dozen more trees as we watched from the windows. I'm glad we made it back inside before the winds started their serious damage.

This is the Sawkill River, which meanders through Woodstock. In August it is usually a quiet stream. Here it has breeched its banks and is also beating the bottom of the bridge we are standing on.

This is the wind around our cabin. You can see one oak laying across the drive. That will be good fuel next winter!

As we posted these videos we were reminded of the song Dreadful Wind and Rain as performed by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. The video is poor but the recording is from their album. Give it a listen.